In Hong Kong, six members of a news site arrested for “seditious publication”

Hong Kong authorities arrested six current and former members of the local media on Wednesday (December 29th) News stand, accused of “Seditious publication” under a law dating back to colonial times.

The arrests come as the international community worries about press freedom in the city, undermined by the takeover led by Beijing after the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

Police said more than 200 uniformed and plainclothes officers were deployed to search the publication office in Kwun Tong district. In a statement, she said she had arrested three men and three women, aged 34 to 73, and that searches were being carried out in their homes.

A journalist from Agence France-Presse saw the editor-in-chief of News stand, Patrick Lam, being taken in handcuffs inside the media offices.

Live announcement

Shortly before dawn, News stand announced live on Facebook that the National Security Police were at the door of Deputy Editor Ronson Chan. In the brief video, officers inform Mr. Chan that he is in possession of a court warrant to investigate the charges of “Conspiracy to publish a seditious publication”, and that Mr. Chan had to stop filming. Ronson Chan, who is also president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, has been ordered to cooperate with investigators, but he is not among those arrested.

Cantonese pop star Denise Ho, who served on the board of directors of News stand but resigned in June, was also arrested, according to her Facebook page. As are Margaret Ng, lawyer and former member of the Local Legislative Council, and Chung Pui-kuen, former editor-in-chief of News stand, according to local media.

News stand is the second Hong Kong newspaper company to find itself in the crosshairs of the authorities. In June, the pro-democracy journal Apple Daily had closed after the freezing of its assets and the arrest of its main leaders under a drastic new law on national security imposed by Beijing in July 2020. This law is not retroactive, the Hong Kong authorities sometimes invoke an order colonial on the “Sedition”, dating from 1938 and unused for years, to suppress dissent.